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Wonder Woman
Who's Afraid of Diana Prince The first attempt to produce a television series based on Wonder Woman occurred in 1967. The success of the Batman television series led Batman producer William Dozier to commission a pilot script by Stan Hart and Larry Siegel. Batman writer Stanley Ralph Ross was then asked to perform a re-write, after Hart and Siegel's script was deemed unsuitable. A portion of the pilot, under five minutes in length, was filmed by Greenway Productions, the company behind the Batman show under the title Who's Afraid of Diana Prince? The piece starred Ellie Wood Walker (Robert Walker Jr.'s wife) as Diana Prince, Linda Harrison as Diana's Wonder Woman alter ego and Maudie Prickett as Diana's mother. In the proposed series Diana Prince (not Wonder Woman) would have been the focus of the comedy. Diana, an awkward and rather plain young woman, lives with her mother close to a United States Air Force base. Much of the film consists of her mother berating Diana about not having a boyfriend. When her mother leaves the room, Diana changes into her Wonder Woman costume and admires her reflection in a mirror. What she sees is not Diana Prince, but rather a sexy super-heroic figure (played by Linda Harrison) who proceeds to preen and pose as the song "Oh, You Beautiful Doll" plays on the soundtrack. The pilot ends with Diana climbing out a window and flying away, indicating that, despite her apparent delusions regarding her alter ego, she does have some super powers. This pilot episode was never broadcast and the project was taken no further. Wonder Woman (1974 Movie) Airdate: March 12, 1974 This version of Wonder Woman (Cathy Lee Crosby) did not wear the comic book costume including the tiara trademark and her "secret identity" of Diana Prince was not all that secret. The film follows Wonder Woman, assistant to government agent Steve Trevor (Kaz Garas) as she pursues a villain named Abner Smith (Ricardo Montalban) who has stolen a set of code books containing classified information about U.S. government field agents. Wonder Woman (Series) 'Movie' Airdate: November 7, 1975 In early 1942, during the Second World War, American pilot Major Steve Trevor (Lyle Waggoner) bails out during an air battle over the Bermuda Triangle, location of Paradise Island. The island is home to the Amazons: beautiful, ageless women with great strength, agility, and intelligence. Amazon princess Diana (Lynda Carter) rescues the handsome Trevor and helps nurse him back to health. Her mother, the Amazon queen (Cloris Leachman; succeeded by Carolyn Jones and Beatrice Straight in later episodes), decrees that Olympic-style games shall be held to select one Amazon to return Trevor back to America, but she forbids her daughter Diana, the princess, to participate. Diana states that since she is not allowed to participate, she does not want to be present for the games and will take a retreat to the other side of the island. The games are held with participants wearing masks and numbers (shown as Roman numerals in triangles on white sleeveless short tunic-dresses). Among the contestants is a blonde Amazon. During the events, the blonde Amazon shows exceptional skills and she ties for first with another Amazon. To break the deadlock, the "bullets and bracelets" event is decided as the tiebreaker, wherein each of the women takes turns shooting at the other; the one being shot at must deflect the bullets with her bulletproof bracelets. The blond woman wins the event, superficially injuring her opponent's arm. When she is pronounced the winner, she removes her mask and wig and reveals that she is Diana. Her mother, though initially shocked, relents and allows her to go to America. Diana's costume, designed by Queen Hippolyta, features emblems of America, the land in which she will be returning Steve Trevor. A golden belt will be the source of her strength and power while away from Paradise Island. She has her bullet-deflecting bracelets and also receives a golden lasso which is unbreakable and forces people to obey and tell the truth when bound with it. As shown later in flashback, Hippolyta also teaches Diana how to transform magically into the costume. Diana, as Wonder Woman, flies to Washington, D.C. in an invisible plane. After dropping Trevor off at a hospital, the heroine stumbles upon a bank robbery, which she stops. A theatrical agent who sees her in action offers to help make her bullets and bracelets act a stage attraction. Diana is hesitant, but needing money in this new society, she agrees. Meanwhile, Trevor's civilian secretary Marcia (Stella Stevens) is a double agent for the Nazi Fifth Columnists. She seeks to aid top spies in killing Trevor and opposing this new threat, Wonder Woman. Her first attempt is arranging for an accomplice to fire a machine gun at Wonder Woman during her stage act. Later, as spy activities increase, Trevor leaves the hospital but gets in a fight and is captured, prompting his "nurse" Diana to come to his rescue. Wonder Woman defeats Marcia in an extended fight sequence in the War Department. Having defeated Marcia, Wonder Woman thwarts a Nazi pilot who had plans to bomb the Brooklyn Navy Yard by using her invisible plane, and she rescues Trevor. With Marcia and the spy ring defeated, the film closes as Trevor and Brigadier General Blankenship talk about Trevor's new secretary whom Blankenship selected not only for her outstanding clerical test scores, but her decidedly plain appearance in contrast to Marcia: the bespectacled Yeoman First Class Diana Prince USNR(WR), Wonder Woman in disguise. 'First Season' The pilot film, aired on November 7, 1975, was a ratings success and ABC quickly authorized the production of two one-hour specials which aired in April 1976. Technically the shows first season, these three productions were would later be considered part of the show's first season. These three special episodes scored strong ratings and ABC ordered a further 11 episodes for the new 1976–77 TV season. The network began airing the episodes every few weeks apart at the beginning of the TV season in September/October 1976. After mid-December 1976, they were airing on a weekly basis up until mid-February 1977. A few cast changes were made between the specials and the series itself. Former Happy Days recurring actress, Beatrice Colen joined the cast as Corporal Etta Candy WAAC, General Blankenship's secretary, thereby providing YN1 Prince with a subordinate. Three episodes featured Debra Winger as Diana's younger sister, Drusilla, aka Wonder Girl, in one of Winger's earliest acting roles. One of the most memorable aspects of the show developed during the first season was the transformation sequence that changed Diana Prince into her superherpoine alter ego. The sequence in the original specials employed a slow fade between two synchronized shots, both filmed with an overcranked camera to create a slow motion effect. A twirling Diana Prince's hair would fall loose as the shot transitioned to a twirling Wonder Woman holding her Diana clothes, which she would stow nearby in a closet or locker. (How she changes back to Diana is never shown, although presumably she must return to the location to retrieve her clothes.) To ensure both segments transitioned smoothly the camera was locked off (secured in place) while Carter's clothing, make-up, and hair was altered between identities; a process Carter claimed on a DVD commentary typically took around 45 minutes. The iconic explosion overlay most associated with the TV show was introduced after the third episode to mask the cut point between the Diana and Wonder Woman clips, meaning they no longer needed to be perfectly aligned. This allowed them to be shot without a locked off camera at more convenient points in the production schedule, when Carter was already in the appropriate costume. The slow motion aspect of the sequence was dropped, and Wonder Woman was no longer left holding her Diana Prince clothes. A thunderclap sound effect accompanied the explosion effect; both the explosion flash and its sound are apparently non-diegetic (only heard by the audience, not within the narrative world), as demonstrated by Diana changing unnoticed in a dormitory of sleeping women, in adjoining office spaces, etc. Generally the audience never sees Wonder Woman change back to Diana Prince, although there is one occasion when it is almost shown: Wonder Woman reveals her secret identity to her little sister Drusilla by slowly turning on the spot, but the actual moment of transformation is masked by a cut-away reaction shot of Drusilla (no thunderclap was heard.) The series began at a time when violence on television was under intense scrutiny. As a result, Wonder Woman was less frequently seen punching or kicking people the way she did in the early episodes. The character would usually be shown pushing and throwing enemies, or using creativity to get them to somehow knock themselves out (jumping high into the air causing pursuers to collide). Despite the wartime circumstances, the character almost never resorted to deadly force. The only exception occurs in the pilot episode when she sinks a German U-boat by crashing an airplane into it; presumably killing everyone aboard. Wonder Woman herself was occasionally overpowered by chloroform and poison gas, but she always came back in the second half of the show to save the day. In a couple of episodes her enemies learned the secret of her high strength level, her magic belt, and temporarily stole it leaving her with average human strength. Her indestructible lasso and her bracelets were stolen or taken away in one episode (leaving her defenseless against gunfire), but Wonder Woman always recovered the stolen components by the end of the episode. (In the comics, Wonder Woman's bracelets were welded onto her forearms, and she would lose most of her strength if men were to join them forcibly with metal.) With the backdrop of World War II, Diana frequently pontificated on the need to preserve the morally supreme ideals of democracy from the threat of Nazis, even in private to her sister. When doing so, she made no attempt to reconcile her democratic sentiments with their Amazonian system of hereditary monarchy, to which Diana herself was heiress apparent. Likewise, in each of the first two 1-hour episodes, Diana asserted that the Nazis had no regard for their women, ignoring the vastly lower value which her own people placed upon men. Wonder Woman herself remained active from 1942 to 1945, and was honored by Franklin D. Roosevelt for her work against Axis attacks. 'Second Season' Despite good ratings for the series, ABC stalled on picking up the show for a second season. This was because Wonder Woman was a period piece; being set in the 1940s. Period pieces are generally much more expensive to produce when necessities like the set, clothing, automobiles, furniture, etc., are factored into the show's budget. While ABC had not yet committed, the show's production company Warner Bros. listened to an offer from rival network CBS. While ABC continued to make up its mind, CBS agreed to pick up the series on condition that the setting be changed from World War II (the 1940s) to the modern day (the 1970s). Changing the title to The New Adventures of Wonder Woman, the series was nudged away from historical World War II writing to a more conventional police/detective action-type show that was more common in the 1970s. Princess Diana, aging slowly because of her Amazon nature, returns from Paradise Island after a 35-year absence (looking virtually the same) to become an agent with the Inter-Agency Defense Command (IADC), a CIA / FBI-type organization fighting crime, criminal organizations, and the occasional alien invasion. Strictly speaking, Lynda Carter was the only cast member whose character continued into the second and third seasons (aside from a brief cameo appearance of Major Trevor (Lyle Waggoner) in Diana's flashback when she first encountered his son, and a framed photograph of him seen on the younger Trevor's office credenza in season 3). The original Steve Trevor was revealed to have risen to the rank of major general and died in the 35-year interim between the first and second seasons, although Lyle Waggoner remained with the series, portraying Trevor's effectively identical son, Steve Jr. The wartime existence of young Steve Jr. was never mentioned in the first series. As a child, Steve Jr. had heard his late father's stories of adventures with Wonder Woman during World War II. It is essentially confirmed in the second season première that his father never introduced him to Wonder Woman and that he had never even seen her photograph. It is similarly implied that he and YN1 Diana Prince were unaware of each other. Diana is taken aback by the younger Steve's existence, implying that his father had never spoken of the boy to either Wonder Woman or YN1 Prince. This was particularly striking when she spoke to Steve Jr. about knowing his father well, from the j-shaped burn scar on his right shoulder, to the 20mm shell casing that he used as a paperweight. The producers chose to drop any suggestion that the new Steve and Wonder Woman were anything more than good friends. Indeed, when an imposter posing as Steve Jr. attempted to seduce Diana, she made it quite clear that she had no sexual interest in him. Executive producer Douglas S. Cramer noted the difficulties in maintaining long-term romantic tension between leads, because the resolution of that romantic tension often results in the cancellation of the series.14 Also, Wonder Woman had fallen in love with the first Steve Trevor. It would not have been the best writing decision to have her fall in love with both father and son. Whereas Waggoner returned in a technically new role, Diana's mother Hippolyta was, conversely, the only other first season character to be seen or mentioned, but Beatrice Straight succeeded Carolyn Jones and Cloris Leachman in the role. The post-war fates of General Phil Blankenship, Etta Candy, and Drusilla / Wonder Girl were never revealed. Diana, Steve, and Joe Atkinson (Norman Burton), a weathered IADC agent, received their orders from a "Charlie's Angels-like" character who is heard but never seen. Diana and Steve would go out and work the field while Joe assisted from the office. The Atkinson character was dropped after the ninth episode of this season, and Steve was given a promotion, becoming IADC Director, and Diana's boss, in the process. This promotion for Steve Trevor meant that Lyle Waggoner was seen less in subsequent episodes for the remainder of the series run. In this season, the computer IRAC (Information Retrieval Associative Computer), more informally known as "Ira," was introduced: its first appearance is in season 2, episode 1, where Diana introduces her Diana Prince identity into its records, over IRAC's protests. Ira was the IADC's super-intelligent computer, who deduces that Diana Prince is really Wonder Woman, although he never shares this information with anyone, except Diana herself. Saundra Sharp joined the cast as Eve, Steve's assistant (the job held by Diana at the start of the season). Towards the end of the season, in the episode "IRAC is Missing", a small mobile robot called Rover was added for comic relief. An offshoot of IRAC who performs duties such as delivering coffee and sorting mail, Rover speaks with a high-pitched voice, occasionally makes "Beep Beep" sounds and, like IRAC, is aware that Wonder Woman's secret identity is Diana Prince. The theme song was re-written to remove references to the Axis, reflecting the series' new present-day setting, and the action depicted in the opening's animated comic book panels was similarly updated. Beginning with the episode "The Man Who Made Volcanoes," the opening title sequence was changed again to an instrumental and more traditional "action scenes" opening. The producers of Wonder Woman generally maintained her no-kill policy, although there were exceptions: In the episode "Anschluss '77" she is forced to destroy a clone of Adolf Hitler. Another episode made reference to a villain who was believed drowned following a previous unseen encounter with Diana/Wonder Woman. Unlike the first season, Wonder Woman's sources of power (magic belt, bracelets, golden lasso) were never removed from her and stolen by villains during the two years the series was set in the 1970s. Changes in season two (its first on CBS) included a slight redesign (again by Donald Lee Feld, still credited as "Donfeld") of Wonder Woman's uniform. The bustier was more flexible, featured less gold metal in the eagle wings in favor of red cloth background, and was cut lower to highlight Carter's décolletage and cleavage. The star-spangled bottoms were cut higher in the thighs. The bracelets changed from dull silver-grey to bright gold, and were noticeably smaller and thinner. Her tiara, appearing unchanged when on Wonder Woman's head, would flatten to become a boomerang, and its ruby star functioned as a communications link to Paradise Island and her mother the queen. Feld also introduced multiple new variants on Wonder Woman's uniform beginning in season two. She still wore the red-white-and-blue cape for special events or appearances from the first season, but without the skirt. (This variant could be described as Wonder Woman's "full-dress uniform.") A diving uniform was introduced—a navy-blue lycra body suit with matching gloves, gold bracelets, flat boots, and a flexible tiara; this was featured whenever aquatic activity was required. The same uniform, with low-heeled boots and a gold helmet, was used to ride motorcycles. At first, Wonder Woman would change into these newer uniforms by performing an extended spin in which she first changed from her Diana Prince clothes to Wonder Woman's standard uniform, then continued to spin until a second light explosion occurred and she would appear in one of the newer variants. However, this extended spin device was dropped for expediency and Diana was then able to change into any of Wonder Woman's uniforms in a single change. A one-off costume variant with trousers was used for one western-themed episode to placate guest star Roy Rogers. Wonder Woman's invisible plane appeared a couple of times in season two, and not at all in season three. The plane's shape was updated with the change in temporal setting, losing the rounded fuselage and modestly curved wings evocative of a WWII-era pursuit-fighter, in favor of a dart-like, delta winged jet. 'Third Season' With the beginning of the third season, further changes were made to target the show at a teenage audience. The title theme was re-recorded again to give it a disco beat, the use of the robot 'Rover' was increased for comic effect, and episodes began to revolve around topical subjects like skateboarding, roller coasters and the environment. (Feld also gave Wonder Woman a "skate-boarder's" uniform, which was also capable of use for training in any "extreme sport" in which she participated.) Teenagers or young adults were commonly used as main characters in the plot lines. The animated stars used before and after commercial breaks were dropped, and Eve disappeared from the cast although she is mentioned once or twice. Episodes during this season showed Diana on assignments by herself far more often (particularly outside of Washington DC), and Steve Trevor had become Diana's boss and was seen less. Wonder Woman was also allowed to become a bit more physical in the third season and could now be seen throwing the occasional punch or kicking. The writers also came up with several unusual ways for Diana to execute her spinning transformation, the most notable instances occurring in the episode "Stolen Faces" in which Diana makes the change while falling off a tall building, and the season two episode "The Pied Piper" in which she changes while strapped into a spinning chair. Diana also exhibited other powers, particularly in the episode "The Deadly Dolphin," in which she is shown communicating telepathically with animals (reminiscent of the "mental radio" from the comics, which was never shown on the series) and generating bursts of an unknown form of energy to scare away a killer shark. In the final episode produced, the writers attempted a "relaunch" of sorts by having Diana reassigned to the Los Angeles bureau of IADC with a new supporting cast. Though done in anticipation of a fourth season, the revamp was seen for only a single episode ("The Man Who Could Not Die"), which set up an assortment of new supporting characters. These included Dale Hawthorn, Diana's new IADC boss, Bret Cassiday (Bob Seagren), a genetically enhanced man who was indestructible (the titular character of the episode), as well as a streetwise youngster named T. Burton Phipps III who inexplicably is allowed to hang out at the IADC. Also added to the cast was a chimpanzee who, like Bret, is also indestructible. This episode was actually the last to be produced and should have ended the third season, but was shown out of sequence with the two-parter "The Phantom of the Roller Coaster." These final three episodes aired by themselves in August–September 1979, months after the broadcast of the rest of season three, creating a mini-season, though they remain grouped as part of season three as opposed to being considered an abbreviated fourth season. CBS ultimately decided to move The Incredible Hulk up to the Friday 8:00 hour from 9:00 to introduce the new series The Dukes of Hazzard and no further episodes of Wonder Woman were produced. After her first musical television special, Carter gave up the role to focus more on her singing career. In addition, she would star in television films and become a fashion and beauty director in Maybelline cosmetics commercials. 'Episode List' Wonder Woman and the Star Riders In 1992, Mattel planned a line of toys for girls with Wonder Woman leading a new cast of four female characters. Two had been previously established: Dolphin in 1968 and Ice in 1988. The other two were new characters invented for the series. Solara had sun-based fire powers while Starlily had earth-based plant powers. "Wonder Woman and the Star Riders" had the subtitle "Sparkling super heroines!" They were to be pitted against the villainess Purrsia (who has animal control abilities) and her mount, Panthera. An announcement for an accompanying animated series was made during the 1993 Toy Fair, however a pilot was never produced beyond character designs and storyboards.5 A few test samples for the toy line were developed, as well as a short comic book story which would have been packaged with the figures. A mini comic was distributed as a breakfast cereal premium.6 Artwork has since been published in Les Daniels' 2000 book, Wonder Woman: The Complete History. The cancelled toy designs were recycled as part of the Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic toy line. All the Star Riders ride winged horses, and Wonder Woman herself rides a winged unicorn named Nightshine. Wonder Woman (2009 Movie) Airdate: March 3, 2009 Centuries ago, the Amazons, a proud and fierce race of warrior women, led by their Queen, Hippolyta (voiced by Virginia Madsen), battled Ares (voiced by Alfred Molina), the god of war, and his army. During the battle, Hippolyta beheaded her son, Thrax (voiced by Jason Miller), whom Ares forcibly conceived with her, who is fighting for his father. Hippolyta then defeated Ares, but Zeus (voiced by David McCallum) stopped her from delivering the death strike. Instead, Hera (voiced by Marg Helgenberger) bound his powers with magic bracers so that he was deprived of his ability to draw power from the aura of violence and death he could instigate, effectively rendering him mortal, and only another god could release him. In compensation, the Amazons were granted the island of Themyscira, where they would remain eternally youthful and isolated from Man in the course of their duty of holding Ares prisoner for all eternity. Later, Hippolyta was granted a daughter, Princess Diana (voiced by Keri Russell), whom she shaped from the sand of the Themyscirian seashore and gave life with her own blood. Over a millennium later, an American fighter pilot, USAF Colonel Steve Trevor (voiced by Nathan Fillion), is shot down in a dogfight and crash-lands on the island, where he soon runs afoul of the Amazon population, including the warlike, aggressive Artemis (voiced by Rosario Dawson). Steve and Diana meet and fight, and she defeats him, taking him to the Amazons. After interrogati ng him with the use of the Amazons' golden lasso, Hippolyta decides he is not an enemy of the Amazons and as such, tradition dictates that an emissary be tasked to ensure his safe return to his own country. Diana volunteers, but is assigned to guard Ares's cell instead since her mother argues that she has not enough experience in dealing with the dangers of the outside world. Diana defies her mother and, her face hidden by a helmet and her guard duty covered by her bookish but kind-hearted Amazon sister Alexa (voiced by Tara Strong), participates in contests of strength and wins the right to take Trevor back to his home. In the meantime, the Amazon Persephone (voiced by Vicki Lewis), who has been gradually seduced by Ares, kills Alexa and releases him. With the additional task of capturing Ares, Diana brings Trevor to New York City, where he volunteers to help Diana on her quest. An investigation uncovers a pattern of violence created by Ares presence that will lead to him given time, and the pair goes out to a bar while they wait. After some heavy drinking, Trevor makes a pass at Diana. They argue outside, but are attacked first by thugs and then the demigod Deimos (voiced by John DiMaggio). Deimos kills himself to prevent being interrogated, but Diana and Steve find a clue on his body that leads them to a concealed gateway to the underworld guarded by members of a still-extant ancient cult of Ares. Once there, Diana attempts to subdue Ares, but he summons harpies that knock her unconscious, prompting Trevor to save her instead of stopping Ares. Meanwhile, Ares performs a sacrifice to open a gate to the Underworld where he persuades his uncle Hades (voiced by Oliver Platt) to remove the bracers, though Hades does not tell Ares that the ultimate cost of removing the bracers would be Ares' own death in combat. Later, Diana regains consciousness in a hospital and is furious that Trevor saved her rather than stop Ares. Trevor argues against her abuse with his own criticism of the Amazons' self-imposed isolation and their generalizations about men, and reveals how much he cares about her. Ares and his army attack Washington, DC. Trevor and Diana arrive to battle Ares and are soon joined by the Amazons. While Ares manages even to summon the Amazons long dead from the Underworld to fight their own sisters, his scheme is stopped by Alexa, a member of the undead host, who reveals to Artemis a chant which nullifies Ares's control over them. The undead then turn on Ares but are destroyed by his powers. Hippolyta faces Persephone in combat and kills her, but in her dying breath, Persephone makes the queen realize that in shutting the Amazons away from the world of men, she has denied them the chance to live their lives as women. Meanwhile, the President of the U.S.A. (voiced by Rick Overton) is influenced by Ares's power and orders a nuclear missile against Themyscira, presuming the island nation to be the source of the attack on Washington. This act of supreme aggression increases Ares's power, but Trevor takes the invisible jet and shoots down the missile just before it hits the island. Finally, after a brutal beating at Ares's hands, Diana finally outwits and kills him. As Trevor arrives back at the scene, Diana final ly accepts him, as the two share a kiss, and the crowd of Amazons begin cheering. Subsequently, Ares is condemned to the underworld to attend Hades as a slave alongside his son. Later on Themyscira, in memory of Alexa, Artemis takes up the hobby of reading (with severe difficulty). Hippolyta realizes that Diana misses both the outside world and Trevor, and to make her happy again, she gives her daughter the task of being a channel for 'communication between men and women'. Diana accepts and returns to New York, where she enjoys the company of Trevor. Their relationship comes with the understanding of her larger duties, such as when Diana sees Cheetah robbing a museum and she excuses herself to stop the supervillainess as the newly christened Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman (2011 Movie) The plot is described as "a reinvention of the iconic DC Comic in which Wonder Woman – aka Diana Themyscira – is a vigilante crime fighter in L.A. but also a successful corporate executive and a modern woman, under the alias Diana Prince, trying to balance all of the elements of her extraordinary life."1 The pilot centers on Diana Themyscira/Wonder Woman's efforts to link Veronica Cale to the distribution of an illegal steroid that gives its user super-human strength and endurance, but can cause death through repeated use; it is also learned that earlier "experimental" versions of the steroid created hideous mutations in Cale's test subjects. Other subplots touched on during the episode include Diana's frustration with having to maintain a "perfect" image to the outside world (she has created a third identity for herself, Diana Prince, so as to have an element of "normalcy" in her life), the legal complications that hinder her as she tries to bring Cale to justice, and her strained romance with Steve Trevor. Flashback sequences show her reluctantly breaking up with Steve on account of her new responsibilities as a crime-fighter. At the end of the episode, Steve comes to her in his new capacity as a Justice Department attorney – and, to Diana's chagrin, he has married someone else. In the pilot's first two acts, Wonder Woman wears a new version of her classic uniform: the familiar red top with gold "W" insignia chestplate (formerly an eagle symbol chestplate) is still used, as are her golden belt and magic Lasso, but these are now worn with blue slacks that have gold stars running along the sides rather than with shorts. Her boots are red with gold trim (where the boots worn by Lynda Carter during the 1975–79 TV series had white trim). Her bracelets are more stylized, and her tiara is slenderer (and W-shaped). During the final act of the pilot, when Wonder Woman flies to Cale's hidden laboratory for the final showdown with the villain, she switches from the pants to the more recognizable shorts. Though Wonder Woman's golden Lasso is referred to as the "Lasso of Truth" by a reporter, she never uses it to compel anyone to tell the truth during the pilot. In a sequence when she is trying to get information out of one of Cale's henchmen, she breaks his arm to make him talk rather than use the Lasso's magic. The Lasso is only employed as an entangling weapon; Wonder Woman snaps it round a target (usually the neck) and jerks hard on it to throw the victim off-balance. Her bracelets can still stop bullets, as in the earlier TV series; she uses them to protect herself from a security guard's gunfire during the episode's climax (and retaliates by hurling a steel pipe at the hapless guard, impaling him through the neck and killing him instantly). Rather than an invisible plane, she gets around Los Angeles in a stylized personal jet which, though highly sophisticated, is quite visible. Wonder Woman (2013 Short) The Amazon warrior from Themyscira does battle with men and monsters in this short project from Rainfall Films. Starring Rileah Vanderbilt and directed by Sam Balcomb, the film was a passion project for all involved; a unique take on the DC superhero beloved and respected around the world. Wonder Woman (2017 Movie) Airdate: May 15, 2017 In present-day Paris, Diana Prince receives a photographic plate of herself and four men taken during World War I, prompting her to recall her past. Daughter of Queen Hippolyta, Diana was raised on the hidden island of Themyscira, home to the Amazonian warrior women created by Zeus to protect mankind. Hippolyta shares the Amazonian history with Diana, including how Ares, Zeus's son, became jealous of humanity and orchestrated its destruction. When the other gods attempted to stop him, Ares killed all but Zeus, who used the last of his power to wound Ares and force his retreat (thus dying in the process). Zeus left the Amazons the island and a weapon, the "Godkiller", to prepare them for Ares' return. Initially forbidding Diana to train as a warrior, Hippolyta allows her sister Antiope to train Diana, only more rigorously than any other warrior. In 1918, Diana, now a young woman, rescues American pilot Captain Steve Trevor when his plane crashes off the Themysciran coast. The island is soon invaded by a German ship pursuing Trevor. The Amazons kill the crew, but Antiope sacrifices herself to save Diana. Steve is interrogated with the Lasso of Hestia, and reveals that a war is consuming the outside world, and that he is an Allied spy. He has stolen a notebook of the chief chemist Isabel Maru, who is attempting to engineer a deadlier form of mustard gas, under the orders of General Erich Ludendorff. Believing Ares to be responsible for the war, Diana arms herself with the "Godkiller" sword, the lasso, and her armor before leaving Themyscira with Steve to locate and destroy Ares for good. In London, they deliver Maru's notebook to the Supreme War Council, where Sir Patrick Morgan is trying to negotiate an armistice with Germany. Diana translates Maru's notes and reveals that the Germans plan to release the deadly gas at the Western Front. Although forbidden by his commander to act, Steve, with secret funding from Sir Patrick, recruits spy Sameer, marksman Charlie, and smuggler Chief to help prevent the gas from being released. The team reaches the front in Belgium. Diana goes alone through No Man's Land and captures the enemy trench, allowing the Allied forces to help her liberate the village of Veld. The team briefly celebrates, while Diana and Steve grow closer romantically. The team learns a gala will be held at the nearby German High Command. Steve and Diana separately infiltrate the party, with Steve intending to locate the gas and destroy it, while Diana intends to kill Ludendorff, believing that he is Ares and thus killing him will end the war. Steve stops her to avoid jeopardizing his mission, allowing Ludendorff to unleash the gas on Veld, killing its inhabitants. Blaming Steve for intervening, Diana pursues Ludendorff to a base where the gas is being loaded into a bomber aircraft bound for London. Diana fights and kills Ludendorff, but is confused when his death does not stop the war. Sir Patrick appears and reveals himself as Ares. He tells Diana that although he has subtly given humans ideas and inspirations, using Ludendorff and Maru as pawns in the process, it is ultimately their decision to resort to violence as they are inherently corrupt. When Diana attempts to kill Ares with the "Godkiller" sword, he destroys it, then reveals Diana to be the "Godkiller", as the daughter of Zeus and Hippolyta. He fails to persuade Diana to help him destroy mankind to restore paradise on Earth. While the two battle, Steve's team destroys Maru's laboratory. Steve hijacks and pilots the bomber carrying the gas to a safe altitude and detonates it, sacrificing himself in the process. Ares attempts to direct Diana's rage and grief at Steve's death by convincing her to kill Maru, but the memories of her experiences with Steve cause her to realize that humans have good within them. She spares Maru and redirects Ares' lightning into him, killing him. Later, the team celebrates the end of the war. In the present day, Diana sends an email to Bruce Wayne thanking him for the photographic plate of her and Steve, and reaffirms her new mission to fight and give on the world's behalf. 'Films based on Wonder Woman' Category:Live Action Category:English Live Action Category:Cartoon Category:English Cartoon Category:1960-1969 Category:1970-1979 Category:1990-1999 Category:2000-2009 Category:2010-2019 Category:Wonder Woman Page